Why Are We Still Having PR Crises in Social Media?

We’re a good 5 years into the whole commercialisation of the social web and social media tools now. Facebook has become a channel and so has Twitter. Over 2 billion people are connected in the world. We’ve had some doozies of PR fails in social media and crises evolve from the use of social media by average citizens. Some have hit major news media like CNN (e.g. United broke my guitar and Motrin moms.) Yet we’re still seeing these crises occur. Most recently with the Penn State issue over Sandusky. In fact some might say these crises are on the rise. Why?

The C-Suite Still Isn’t Listening
We’ve seen it with a number of our clients, even this year. We provide them the analysis of how the social media crisis they’re facing happened, where it spread, which group or individual drove it and the content/messaging that evolved. Usually there is a deer-in-the-headlights look from the CEO or VP followed by an expletive. The other phrase we often hear is, “but this stuff is for kids.” Unfortunately that sentiment is still largely the case in the C-suite. Few executives actually, if ever, use these social media tools in many industries. They just don’t have the time and the responsibility for this is levelled at the PR or marketing teams and seen mostly as part of a marketing channel. For the marketing VP it is seen mostly as a broadcast channel, not an engagement channel. Unless you use social media tools it is hard to wrap ones head around it.

The Impact is Still Intangible
Sort of. In some cases such as United and the guitar fiasco it is immediately measurable. In others, like the Keystone XL issue, it is more complex and harder to definitively say that social media use directly resulted in Obama’s decision to delay. But social media was used by individuals and groups; it was very coordinated and  focused over a long period of time. For many businesses the impact is soft in a sense, until sales decline or a legislative issue doesn’t pass. Sometimes it is hard to clarify. But the fact is, these tools are being used by citizens and they are having an impact. It’s just about degrees.

Businesses Run On Process
All businesses run on processes. Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars shaping and refining their processes. From sales to marketing to manufacturing and hiring. With larger businesses, social media is disruptive and challenges industrial era thinking. It is hard for a large company to quickly shift gears. This presents an immediate disadvantage to business. One that people have knowingly or unconsciously taken advantage of.

So it is a combination of issues that come together and we suspect there will be more PR crises to come and probably some very nasty ones. In fact we expect them to rise into 2014. Until senior management in all industries comes to greater grips of the potential damage, even if they aren’t using social media as a company, these types of crises aren’t going away anytime soon. Some firms have implemented social media monitoring tools for online reputation management, but even then they are not immune to a crises happening.

(Photo Credit: Benedetto Tozi on Flickr)

Social Media Use in Crises Situations

We’ve completed several research studies on the use of social media during and after natural disasters now, in Canada, U.S. and UK (our own and from other sources.) From our research and reviews of other case studies, we’ve identified the four primary ways that citizens use social media technologies during natural disasters. We see such uses increasing in the future.

1. Family & Friends Communication: To connect with family members between affected and unaffected communities/areas (or within affected communities) for situation updates and planning responses. This is the most popular use. Primary tools used are Twitter, Facebook and/or a blog. We noted extensive use of mobile apps, but txting is not significant, which is interesting in and of itself.

2. Situation Updates: Neighbours and communities share critical information between each other such as; road closures, power outages, fires, accidents and other related damages. This is rarely shared however, with local authorities, yet is publicly available (except perhaps in closed social networks such as Facebook.)

3. Situational/Supplemental Awareness: We’ve found that in a number of cases (over 80%) citizens rely less and less on authority communication, especially through traditional channels (television, radio, phone.) In part this may be due to the timeliness of these mediums to get a message out by government or news media. This information from authorities on situational developments has become supplemented by citizens using social media channels to share information in text, image and video format.

4. Services Access Assistance: Citizens would use social media channels to provide each other with ways and means to contact different services they may need after a crisis and sometimes during. They may share methods on “how” to access a service including how to “frame” the situation to elicit a better response from government agencies/services.

These findings can better help governments and other response/recovery services to understand the communication taking place between citizens. Social Media channels may help governments reach citizens more effectively while also monitoring public uploading of content to gain insights into areas where emergency services may be needed they may not otherwise have been able to receive.

Some governments in the US and Canada are building web-based applications to integrate social media feeds into a centralized site that may include a Google Map mashup to provide situational reporting, such as the “Snowmaggedon” snow storm in 2010 in Washington, DC.

The Role of Social Networks in Online Engagement

Social Networks are a cornerstone of Cyburbia…they are the hubs or “cities” of our online lives. But their role in our online lives is complex and multi-layered. From over 200 research projects into social media usage across a number of industries and public policy engagements, we’ve garnered some interesting views into social networks. Here’s what we’ve come to understand about them.

Multiple Social Networks Per Person
We’ve found that on average people have 3 social networks that they engage with. Facebook today (formerly MySpace) tends to be the “overarching” or primary network. This is where people engage across a broader audience of friends, family and acquaintances. The Personal Hub is the one that gets the most activity. In a Personal Hub communications behaviour is focused on personal life issues. For marketers that means trying to sell a business product will more than likely be a failure. Engagement in these channels means understanding the different frame of mind the user will be in. A fact we often see overlooked by marketers.

The Other Networks
Outside of the Personal Hub social network people will tend to have a social network we term the “hobby network” which will be around their primary recreational activity; golf, kayaking, sports, books etc. These networks are superb engagement channels for marketers with products or services for that particular vertical. Then we find people will engage in at least one “professional network” such as LinkedIn (far less so in blue collar or low-knowledge jobs however.) Here they connect for professional reasons.

Cultural and Ethnic Social Networks
This is where diaspora communities engage with each other in their host nation communities and with their homeland online communities. Cultural groups connect similarly. Those of Caucasian North American origin rarely have a reason or interest to engage in these communities in the US, UK and Canada. Cultural and ethnic groups will spend more time in these social networks than the social network more suited to the host community they live in. Some examples are BigAdda for Indians, AllAfricans.com for Africans, although a large number of African Americans and African Canadians engage in this social network.

Some may think that such behaviour creates walls and isolation of online communities. We argue no more so than in the real world. Just as in the real world however, there are linkages across the communities.

The Chatty Caribbean, Naturally

Anyone who’s spent time in the Caribbean knows that the people of those splendid islands are friendly, generous of spirit, kind and very social. We recently worked on several research projects for consumer product companies looking to understand the online nature of people in the Caribbean as they developed marketing strategies. We were impressed with their online presence and the volume of chatter.

Perhaps it is natural that the more “social” a culture is that this nature should translate well into Cyburbia? It certainly does in the Caribbean. According to CARICOM (a great organization helping foster development in the Caribbean) there are just over 10 Million people online in the region or roughly 24% of the population. Facebook data indicates about 4 million online or 42% of the online population. Not bad.

Here’s some of our findings on social media use in the Caribbean;

Age Groups & Gender
The 20-39 range is the most active in social media channels. This is trending lower than the US, Canada and South America where we actually see the 30-49 segment more active overall. In North America professionals are also more active than in the Caribbean, although business discussions do feature prominently. It would seem to be almost equal with females edging just slightly above males, similar to other parts of the world.

Top Social Networks in the Caribbean
Facebook doesn’t lead the way yet, but no doubt will at some point. Or perhaps not. One thing we noticed about content in social media channels in the Caribbean is that they love to share music, video and photo’s, especially that which they’ve created themselves. Facebook doesn’t allow for much “creativity” with it’s pages like some of the social networks in the Caribbean do. Ranking is based on number of members, mentions in news and social media channels and Alexa rank.

Key Topics
Seems like Caribbean folks love to talk about dating and romance. Music closely followed discussions on dating and romance and slipping in at third place is politics. They love to discuss politics within their own countries, the Caribbean as a whole and then global issues. Travel was mostly amongst the various islands but also to other countries, most notably the US, Africa and UK.

Most Active in Social Media
Here we looked at which of the primary countries is most active in social media. We factored in overall population, Internet penetration and adjusted accordingly. The Bahamas leads the way followed by Jamaica and then Trinidad & Tobego. We did not include Cuba in this research.

Summary
The Caribbean overall represents a small market compared to the US or Europe, but when it comes to being online, they are increasingly engaged. Social media usage has only really taken off in the last two years, but they are catching up quickly. Twitter is increasingly popular and they love to blog, create and share videos and images. This is a very expressive and passionate part of the world. Median incomes are rising and there is a growing middle class meaning business opportunities will only increase for marketers. The mobile market is growing rapidly in the Caribbean as well and the people are an increasingly sophisticated market. Any marketers who think otherwise will be making a costly mistake.

Research Notes & Copyright:

The data reported here is approved for release by the respective clients and is in aggregate form. In our research we do not look at the profiles of individuals and we do not report on personal information to clients nor do we collect and store any. Information was collected using our proprietary technology, MS360 and validated by analysts and third party services. Information is subject to change and was considered accurate at the time of the creation of the work product. Data and information herein is copyright MediaBadger Public Affairs Ltd. (Canada) and MediaBadger Ltd. (UK). Please attribute ownership if using the information herein. Further information can be obtained by contacting us.

Social Media & Business Use in Atlantic Canada Update

Citizen or “netizen” use of social media technologies in Atlantic Canada is fairly high at around 78% of the online population. So what about business use? We monitor such activity on an ongoing basis in Atlantic Canada, UK and Northeastern US. So here’s a quick update on usage in Atlantic Canada this year.

Trend: While we’ve seen a 32% increase in businesses using social media in Atlantic Canada this year over 2009, what we’ve really noticed is “individual use”, that is, professionals, use social media more than a “business entity.” We define a business entity as a company that has a presence in a social media channel.

Professional Usage: Professionals use of social media tools is up 48% over 2009. The most popular business social media tool in Atlantic Canada is LinkedIn followed by Plaxo. eCademy and FastPitch are distant third and fourth respectively. We also note that “knowledge workers” or “white collar” professions are more active than “blue collar” or “skilled trades”. Knowledge workers dominate this space for business use. The top professions using business social networking tools are; 1) marketing, 2) public relations, 3) insurance/finance, 4) real-estate and 5) technology.

Business Usage: Businesses are increasing their usage of social media tools, mostly for marketing messages. The most popular channels for businesses in Atlantic Canada are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and blogging. The most popular blogging platform is WordPress followed by blogger.

We do note that although blogging is up 21% over 2009, businesses will average 1 blog post per month only. In 67% of the instances where we looked at a business blog, the blog design did not match their website design or corporate branding. This can lead to prospective mistrust amongst potential customers and purchase dissonance.

Conclusion: We forecast growth in use of social media by businesses this year and are seeing slightly higher use than we expected. We do note that businesses tend to have one person who engages the most with social technologies. We saw that 43% of businesses that use social media have sales professionals as their front while 40% were marketing and the remaining 17% were public relations/communications professionals.

Methodology: We monitor 1,500 business domains across Atlantic Canada (similar and scaled to population in UK and NE USA) with our crawler then running search intervals every month. Data is then compiled through our Artificial Intelligence Engine and reviewed by two analysts. We combine automated and physical research and analysis. We began benchmarking in 2008 and now have two years of statistical data on usage in these regions.